There are things you just can't change Many New Year's resolutions are negative, You hate yourself for being overweight so you resolve to lose weight or join a gym. Thanks to Katherine May for this, So instead of focusing on something about myself I feel bad about, and will feel bad if I do not …
Continue reading I resolve to be more awkward than ever in 2021
"May you live in interesting times" is a term from the far east, and it is a curse. 2020 feels like that, interesting for all the wrong reasons. But I have a reason to be cheerful, on my left upper arm is a vaccination scar, which probably marks me out as a boomer, sorry about …
Continue reading 2020, a retrospective (Mostly about Covid-19 and vaccination)
BBC local radio serviceSunday 27th December 2020 There was no online service at Holy Trinity, Huddersfield this morning, neither was there a streamed service I could find from my father's church, Christ the King, Battyeford, where I used to worship over 40 years ago. At least there was the BBC radio service broadcast at 8am. …
Merry Christmas There has been discussion on Twitter about the best carol for Christmas 2020. Whilst there have been plenty of punning answers, which I will not distract you with, OK, maybe one ... The first vaccine, oh Fauci did say was to certain poor people in homes where they layIn homes where they stay …
While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night,All seated on the ground,The angel of the Lord came down,And glory shone around. In the pasture lands of the western Mediterranean, flocks are often either sheep or goats. In the east, where land is more scrubby, herds would have been mixed, goats can graze harder ground. Next time …
Continue reading What does Jesus have against goats? – Matthew in Advent day 21
Nearly all the meat you eat is male. My great-grandfather was an agricultural worker in North Yorkshire, between Malton and Pickering, near to where the Flamingoland theme park now stands. He moved to West Yorkshire to become a farm owner, running a dairy farm on Hartshead moor. That farm is no longer in the family …
Continue reading Animal husbandry for beginners – Matthew in Advent day 20
Last Saturday (it will be linked at the end of this post) I wrote of the traditional interpretation and why I have always felt wary of it, because the traditional reading takes takes the Greek talenta, a large sum of money, translated traditionally as talent but in the NIV as bag of gold, and makes …
Continue reading Is this capitalism? – Matthew in Advent day 19
Holy Trinity Church, HuddersfieldSunday 20th December 2020 It was like watching a scene from the transporter room in Star Trek. At the end of the sermon retired vicar John became Vicar Mike, similar jumper and shirt colours added to the effect. It was the fade they used in editing, one merging fairly quickly into the …
"You know sometimes words have two meanings," wrote Robert Plant in Led Zeppelin's Stairway to heaven, and it is true. Several passages in the Old Testament have an immediate meaning to the people at the time and then a further Messianic meaning, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As Christmas is almost upon us I will take …
Continue reading Use what you are given? – Matthew in Advent day 18
In just one week it will be Christmas, are you ready? Have you bought and wrapped the presents, bought all the non perishable food so the last week is as smooth as possible? Or are you a stereotypical man? Men, rumour has it, though I have not met one who admits to it, start their …
